Beautiful Music

Louise Toppin is a coloratura soprano — she sings virtuosic music with agile leaps and flourishes. Dr. Toppin is a Professor of Music and Voice at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Today’s Beautiful Music features Louise Toppin with pianist Lydia Qiu performing Hold Fast to Dreams by American composer, pianist, […]

Robyn Smith is a young trombone player who earned her Master’s degree at New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston. She is the newly-appointed second trombonist of the Michigan Opera Theatre. Today’s Beautiful Music features Robyn Smith performing one of the selections on her 2018 senior recital at NEC. She is playing the second movement of

The String Queens is a Washington, DC-based trio that plays music ranging from the Baroque era to Jazz to Pop and beyond. Violinist Kendall Isadore, violist Dawn Johnson, and cellist Élise Sharp provide today’s Beautiful Music, demonstrating their gift for education in addition to their gifts as instrumentalists. Enjoy how they explore Johann Pachelbel’s famous

The marvelous Catalyst Quartet provides today’s Beautiful Music. They’re playing the first movement from the String Quartet in F major, Op. 96 — aka The AMERICAN Quartet — by Antonin Dvorak. The Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the Sphinx Organization in 2010. Its members are violinists Karla Donehew Perez, and Abi Fayette, violist

Cellist Thomas Mesa and pianist Yoon Lee offer today’s Beautiful Music. They give a virtual performance of the elegant MEDITATION from Thaïs by Jule Massenet, with Mr. Mesa in Miami, Florida and Ms. Lee in New York. You can read more about the talented Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa using the link below to his website.

The dynamic pianist Yuja Wang provides today’s Beautiful Music. She’s showing off the sensitive and tender side of her artistry playing the Melodie from Orpheus by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The Beijing, China-born musician began studying piano at age six, and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Curtis

Today’s Beautiful Music features Michael Morgan, one time Music Director and Conductor of Oakland Symphony, conducting the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. They’re giving a lush and beautiful performance of the Symphony #3 by Johannes Brahms.

I recently heard a terrific young ensemble in concert. The Orbis String Quartet is a talented group of instrumentalists who play straight-ahead string quartet repertory, as well as their own arrangements of a variety of music for which they play and SING at the same time. Today’s Beautiful Music features these outstanding, unique musicians from

Noémy Gagnon-Lafrenais plays baroque violin and is an expert in historical performance practices. Not satisfied with her music degrees from The Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory, and Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal, she is now also pursuing a degree in engineering from Polytechnique Montréal. In the summer of 2017 in Bruges, Noémy Gagnon-Lafrenais recorded this

You’ll want to sing along with this magnificent performance of the HALLELUJAH CHORUS from Ludwig van Beethoven’s 1802 oratorio CHRIST ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. This 2018 concert was given by EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble & Sphinx Symphony Orchestra. https://www.sphinxmusic.org/exigence-vocal-ensemble/